"Want" being the critical word here.
If I detect a crime on my property and don't notify the police (ie file a complaint), the police aren't going to go after anybody because they don't even know something has happened.
In this case you could say it's been in the news enough that there should be an investigation. Maybe there is, who knows? If the victim isn't going to cooperate, it's going to be a difficult investigation and prosecution and those resources may be better spent elsewhere.
They just subpoena for whatever they want to know, it's not a new problem for them.
Or maybe the AI companies already self-reported these violations? Last year the DOJ set up a policy to not prosecute a lot of crime if the company self-reports and perhaps this fits the criteria for that?
https://www.bakerlaw.com/insights/doj-criminal-division-anno...
IMO an analogous situation would be where a police officer acts to prevent a in-progress burglary he has stumbled across even in the absence of a complaint by the owner of the property that's being burgled.
EDIT: Or -for the sticklers out there- another one would be prosecutors pursuing an attempted homicide case despite the fact that the intended victim declined to either press charges or even complain to authorities about the attempted slaying.
I'm not saying somebody has to press charges, that's not how it works, but the police have to be aware of the supposed crime.
Do Federal police and Federal prosecutors not read the news? I'd be shocked if they didn't. And while I would 100% believe a claim that not every cop and prosecutor is aware of tech news, I would find any argument that those that deal with "cybercrime" were unaware of the news to be completely incredible.
I'll also note that -unless my memory is failing me here- the only charges against Swartz that had anything to do with MIT were dropped very early on, whereas the charges that had to do with the "attack" on JSTOR's systems remained.
As I said, in many cases, the actual victims don't need to file complaints for The Federales to either begin investigations or press charges.
> I'm not saying somebody has to press charges...
Yeah, but you did? [0]
How many of the victim companies have filed complaints with the FBI? As I understand it, that would be step one.
I can file a complaint with the police that you broke into my computer but if charges are pressed that's done by the state and it's the state that is the plaintiff.
You're right though - reading about it in the news is enough for an investigation to commence but like I said elsewhere, resources are stretched thin and without somebody saying they were harmed it might not get ranked above some other case with an identifiable, cooperative victim and an easy to prosecute case.